Is Estonia a crypto heaven? LEXTAL’s video blog

There’s been a great surge of international interest in establishing a cryptocurrency-based business here in Estonia from foreign investors. Investors are active both in the wallet/exchange side of crypto as well as the ICO side. So we figured we will give a short introduction into both of these here.

First – In Estonia there are two types of permits for operation in the field of cryptocurrencies:

a permit for providers of a service of exchanging a virtual currency against a fiat currency and vice-versa (the so-called exchange permit); and

a permit for providers of a virtual currency wallet service (the so-called wallet permit).

The scope of both of these permits is quite self-explanatory – one allows you to exchange crypto to fiat and vice versa and the other allows you to provide a wallet service to customers.

Acquisition of these permits will usually take around a month or two, though we have gotten a wallet permit registered recently in only two days as of issuing the application, so exceptions may occur (in both ways).

Second – It is possible to conduct an ICO in Estonia. For instance LEXTAL was closely involved with the Agrello project which raised nearly 31 million dollars in 2017 for a blockchain based smart contract project.

However, it is not possible to say in this short video what license (if any) you will need to conduct an ICO in Estonia. The variables are to great. It is possible that the token will be qualified as a security, a share of an investment fund, a donation or a number of other instruments. It may well be a combination of several different instruments.

In any case, the first step will be to analyse your token. What rights will it give to the token holders and how will it be used. Once the token structure is in place any lawyer worth their salt will be able to tell you what licenses you will need and what steps you must take.

LEXTAL

LEXTAL is one of the leading full service corporate law firms in Baltics founded in 2003. We provide legal assistance in all key practice areas implementing customized solutions depending on the case. Please introduce with our reference list. LEXTAL is a member of Unilaw and TELFA. Read more >